Sandbox / Desdendelle

Retired. That's what former Protector of the Plot Continuum agents Sergio Turbo and Nikki Cherryflower thought they were, until they found themselves whisked to an unknown world. Sergio is picked up by Hayate Yagami and her ship, the Wolfram, from Lyrical Nanoha, as lost and confused as he is. Nikki meets Alvin Davenport from Ace Combat 5, who shouldn't really be alive.
Forced to pick up arms once again, they can only rely on their skills and the new allies they make along the way to find a way back to their world... or at least each other.

— Author's Summary

The World Without Authors by SergioTurbo is a Massive Multiplayer Crossover Fan Fic set After the End of his PPC spinoff.

To be exact, with World One gone, all fictional worlds have Unravelled, disappearing into nothingness. Now Sergio, Nikki and their friends must brave the remnants of the world and, at first, find each other; but war looms, and other threats lurk in the shadows.

Has two spinoffs:

• "London, Unreal" by Huinesoron is a Lighter and Softer Elsewhere Fic dealing with the exploits of retired PPC Agent Constance Simms and her twelve-year-old daughter Jasmine Simms.
• "And This is the Gate of Heaven" by Desdendelle shows some of Tenno/Dar's earlier adventures.

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The World Without Authors contains examples of:

• Ace Custom: if Corolla isn't busy having mock fights with a Tenno in her Variable Fighter, she's working on something.
  • Strike Dove purchased a B-1B Lancer which Corolla plans to modify into an AWACS plane for Long Caster, as his E-767 simply can't keep up with Strike Dove's Variable Fighters.
  • AWACS Bandog's E-767 was captured by Strike Dove and modified with Lyrical Nanoha tech to ease up on crew requirements and free up space for people and cargo.
  • Corolla not only installed Electronic Warfare equipment on her FB-22, she also converted it to a rudderless configuration.
  • Hiro's GAT-42S Destiny Gundam, supposedly a pre-production example of an attempt to mass produce the original Destiny Gundam, was later upgraded into the CMS-42HS Knight Destiny Gundam, the most notable modification being Corolla's unique Minotaur Drive as its power generator.
  • Sergio's VF-0SD Phoenix already rolled off the assembly line as an unique example, being a VF-0D fitted with the VF-0S head and electronics and thus being the only delta wing VF-0 built to squadron leader specifications (a role reserved in canon only to the swing-wing Phoenixes). On top of that, Gino fitted it with experimental magic-driven pods and Corolla fitted additional systems to the airframe, including a neural link control system.
  • The SF-26A Blaze is a custom-made variant of the VF-25A Messiah manufactured for Razgriz Squadron.
  • The SF-32 Galahad is a custom variant of the VF-31A Kairos manufactured for Skystreaker Squadron. Those have different parts depending on the pilot — for example, Corolla's Electronic Warfare C variant carries a foldable radar dish in its multipurpose container, lacks a gunpod and has only one barrel on its "head turret", while Nikki's melee-specialised N variant carries multiple Beam weapons and high-mobility packs.
• A Death in the Limelight: The first time we see Fireteam Orange — Efi and "Lucy" — is chapter 26, which is also the chapter where they are killed by Dar.
• After the End: the whole multiverse collapsed in the Unravel, and the Unravelled World is a mishmash of whatever pieces of worlds are left over.
• All There in the Manual: Some technical information, such as aircraft specs, is found in blog posts and author's notes.
• Anyone Can Die: Being a named character, a canon character, or a counterpart of the protagonist won't save you from death. So far, the list of casualties include Cuirassier (the Sergio Turbo from Kathleen's timeline), all of the surviving Sicario Mercenary Corps save for Prez, Marcus Leone (one of the evil Mad Scientist versions of the Professor), Chianti of the Black Organization, the Brigador Efigenia Tseng, and the Second Lycoris Hibana Kagari.
• Apocalypse How: Anything and everything that didn't find itself in the Unravelled World is gone completely due to World One vanishing.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Dar notes that Sergio's Barrett M82A1 anti-materiel rifle is "underpowered, not nearly moddable enough and poorly named to boot".
• Badass Family: Sergio's family members are all competent fighters, pilots and the like.
• Child Soldier: Various characters, such as Dar and the Lycoris are child soldiers, while others were ones in the past (e.g. some of the protagonists and some of the Lyrical Nanoha characters). Discussed by the Yakuza in chapter 26, who ironically end up hiring another child soldier to solve their child soldier woes:
  Mr Kiriake: “Evidently the government in this new world has a secret child soldier program going on.”
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: In chapter 12, Nikki gets shot down by a Grabacr pilot, having taken a hit meant for Sergio. He proceeds to eviscerate the opposition, pushing his plane way past what it should be able to do.
  This is treated as a bad thing, as it shows that he's returning into his Suvian roots, and (in a Surprisingly Realistic Outcome) gets him chewed out by both his commanding officer Johnson (for murdering parachuting pilots) and Corolla (for going Stu again).
• Code Name: Considering that this is (also) an Ace Combat military 'fic, there are many, many characters with TAC and code names:
  • Skystreaker Squadron consists of Skytreaker Leader (Fisherman, Leroy Johnson), Skystreaker 1 (Lightning, Sergio Turbo), Skystreaker 2 (Comet, Ami Tanegashima), Skystreaker 3 (Robogirl, Corolla), Skystreaker 4 (Starlight, Nikki Cherryflower) and Skystreaker 5 (Mermaid, Ai Minase).
  • Razgriz Squadron of Ace Combat 5 fame, sans Blaze, make an appearance, as do their kind-of counterparts from Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After, Wardog Squadron.
  • Spare Squadron also makes an appearance.
  • So does Sol Squadron, though since Wit, Seymour, Hermann and Roald didn't make it past the Unravel, Sol 2 is Miksa Shilage, TAC name Cherub, Mihaly's uncanonical grandson, Sol 3 is Nemesis, Chris Leone, and Sol 4 is none other than Solo Wing Pixy.
  • Haro Squadron consists of Haro 1 (Knight, Hiro Shirogane), Haro 2 (Tsunami, Keiko Turbo) and Haro 3 (Thunderbolt, Hajime Turbo).
  • Hitman Squadron (from Project Wingman) and AWACS Galaxy made it past the Unravel. They are joined by Hitman 4, TAC name Cuirassier, who is Sergio Turbo from Kathleen's timeline.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: As Sergio notes, Dar, like him, was raised to be a weapon; but, unlike him, she seems to be completely fine with her lot in life.
• The Dreaded: Skystreaker Squadron is renowned as "the White Birds". In chapter 26, Efi is bummed out that she managed to avoid getting killed by them, only to get killed by Dar.
  Efi: “I can’t believe I dodged the White Birds only to die here.”
• Easily Forgiven: Strike Dove goes from attempting to take down Dar with all their might to trying to get her to join up in the matter of hours. Justified in various ways: Sergio sees it as Recruiting the Criminal and notes that "If you can’t beat them, join them... or make them join you" while Nikki sympathises with Dar, since she sees her as the same sort of "person that considers themselves a weapon" that Sergio used to be.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The World Without Authors tells the story of, well, the world that exists without any.
• Had to Be Sharp: The Professor explains the idea behind this trope to Yui Takeno after he convinces Dar to switch her allegiance from the Yakuza to him.
  The Professor: “Understand this, miss Takeno: in this world, the victor will be he that fights smarter, not harder. If a person like you or me turns the fight into a contest of strength, then he’s already lost before firing the first bullet.”
• Hired Guns:
  • Strike Dove, the company that employs most of the main characters, is a mercenary outfit.
  • Sicario Mercenary Corps exists until Monarch, Comic and Diplomat are shot down by Pixy and the Belkans kill Galaxy in order to get the Briefcase. Afterwards, Prez joins Strike Dove.
  • The Macross-verse PMCs Xaos and Strategic Military Services are employed by the Coalition.
  • A couple of Brigadors show up in chapter 26 under the employ of the Black Organization.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Exploited; in chapter 5, Corolla installs Ace Combat-verse pylons on some of Strike Dove's planes, allowing them to carry a ridiculous amount of missiles in "some kind of dimensional pocket".
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming:
  • The first eleven chapter names all refer to Ace Combat missions.
  • Chapter 13 is named "Lasting Damage I". This is a reference to two relevant PPC interludes, "Lasting Damage" and "Lasting Damage II"^explanationIt's a reference to The Culture book Look to Windward: The Lasting Damage was a GSV that was destroyed in the Idiran War; the Lasting Damage II was a GSV that housed the same Mind, restored from backup; and the Lasting Damage I was the GSV that housed the original Mind, which was at first thought destroyed..
  • The chapters of "And This is the Gate of Heaven" are all named after Brigador missions.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: Sergio refers to Dar as "that thing" and "a monster" instead of "her". He stops once he realises that she, too, was raised as a weapon.
• Lampshade Hanging: When Dar attacks Nikki while she's in the middle of Unisoning and coordinating with Corolla, the narration notes that it is "staggeringly bad manners" to do so (Talking Is a Free Action, after all).
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • In the fourth chapter of "And This is the Gate of Heaven", Dar notes that, in the Origin System, most interior rooms have no more than four exits. This is, of course, true for tiles in Warframe.
  • When discussing Conan Edogawa in chapter 23, Chisato asks, “Are we in an anime now?”
  • When Dar is reminded of the Lephantis in chapter 27, her internal monologue complains about it being a bullet sponge. It's also one in-game, especially in Sorties and on the Steel Path.
  • When Dar explains her motives to the Skystreakers, she notes that some Tenno stop fighting relatively early, others after accomplishing everything there is for a Tenno to do, and that she herself fights for fighting's own sake. This is similar to how some people don't click with Warframe, others do everything there's to do in-game and go on hiatuses broken by short periods of farming new content, and people that play the game for its own sake.
• Lighter and Softer: "London Unreal", a Spin-Off by Huinesoron, is an Elsewhere Fic dealing with the exploits of retired PPC Agent Constance Simms and her twelve-year-old daughter Jasmine Simms. It leans more towards comedy than drama and so far none of the various "darker" characters have made an appearance.
• Literary Allusion Title: "And This is the Gate of Heaven" comes from Genesis 28:17:
  And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: As of chapter 28 the 'fic features 110 characters from 14 different media.
• Mook Horror Show: Dar tends to "star" in those.
  • Chapter 3 of "And This is the Gate of Heaven" shows her escape from a crashed Corpus base from the PoV of a Corpus Tech-Sergeant. She blows up the base by overloading its reactor before she leaves.
  • Chapter 26 shows her attack on a Black Organization factory from the PoV of one Mr Gubei, the security supervisor of the factory, and her fight with Fireteam Orange through the eyes of the Brigador, Efigenia Tseng. She curbstomps both the factory's security team and Fireteam Orange.
• Mum Looks Like a Sister: Because members of Sergio's family were taken from different points in time, the mothers (Nikki and Ami, both of whom are 20) look like the older sisters of the daughters (Keiko and Hajime, both of whom are 16). Taken to an extreme with Ami and Hajime — Ami is petite enough to look like Hajime's younger sister.
• Operation: [Blank]: Unsurprisingly, for a military 'fic.
  • The rescue of Prince Bedwig of Belka is called "Operation Birthday Party Invitation" — as Corolla notes, it takes place the day before Sergio's birthday, and since everybody is invited to the party, nobody is allowed to die.
  • The escort mission for the broadcast of Prince Bedwig's surrender speech is called, appropriately, Operation Messenger Pigeon.
• Other Me Annoys Me: The longer Marco Leone's meeting with Marcus Leone goes on, the more exasperated he gets. When Marcus attempts to kill Chris (then an embryo), he goes Papa Wolf and shoots Marcus in the back.
  The Professor's thoughts: Clearly, this other version of him was one of the deranged ones - one of those that went by “Marcus”.
• Overly Long Name: Mihaly Shilage has thirteen given names. Lampshaded by the Sergio, who notes that this is worse than many a Suvian he's encountered as a PPC agent.
  Sergio: “I’ve used ‘having a ridiculously long name’ as a charge against Suvians for names much shorter than that.”
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Because of the way Kaito's time magic works, individuals with time manipulation abilities, such as Kathleen (a genetically-engineered psychic), have this (at least with relation to the loops he's running).
• Shout-Out:
  • The barkeep in Falcon's Nest — the narration notes that Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" — is clearly based on Agil.
  • The description of two of the three Yakuza in chapter 26 is lifted wholesale from Yakuza My Brother.
• Sole Survivor: Any character that's the only surviving one from their canon, such as Dar being the only Tenno around or B-312 being the only Halo character around (until his run-in with Dar, anyway).
• Thou Shalt Not Kill:
  • Discussed between Shinichi Kudo and Sergio: Kudo stuck to this code; when they meet again in Tokyo, Kudo is disappointed to learn that Sergio abandoned it a long time ago.
  Kudo: “I understand, but I’m still disappointed that you no longer agree that a detective should strive to protect everyone’s lives... even those of criminals.”
  • Discussed in chapter 29; Chisato adheres to this, Nikki would like to (but doesn't), while Dar thinks it's a good way to lose more people down the line.
• Titled After the Song: The chapters of "And This is the Gate of Heaven" are all named after Brigador missions, which are in turn named after songs.
• What the Hell Are You?: After Dar deflects a Divine Buster cast by Nikki, the latter wonders what will it take to defeat the former:
  Nikki's thoughts: What the hell does it take to bring this thing down?

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